Dems Start to Eat their Own

Dan Gerstein makes the case in Forbes that Pelosi's divisive strategies and involvement in crafting the disastrous stimulus is to blame for wrecking Obama's agenda. His prescription for the failing Obama agenda:

Overreaching can be a very dangerous thing in our politics--especially when the head of your party got elected running against it. And sometimes the only solution to overreaching is, well, overthrowing.

CNN offers up the Blame Obama argument citing claims congressional Democrats being "baffled" and "frustrated" by the President's lack of leadership on policy points:

“We appreciate the rhetoric and his willingness to ratchet up the pressure but what most Democrats on the Hill are looking for is for the president to weigh in and make decisions on outstanding issues. Instead of sending out his people and saying the president isn’t ruling anything out, members would like a little bit of clarity on what he would support – especially on how to pay for his health reform bill,” a senior Democratic congressional source tells CNN.

CNN also notes some blame is being directed at the Senate negotiators, who have "repeatedly missed deadlines." While negotiators, presumably Baucus et al on Finance became targets in the Senate, Blue Dog congressional representatives get the lion share of blame from the lefty blogs and are massive targets in the comments at KOS and Huffington Post.

So while it is rather amusing to watch the Dems form a circular firing squad, the question remains who is most to blame for failing to propose and pass the much promised health care reform, particularly since the Dems enjoy huge majorities in both the House and Senate? Laura Meckler, Jonathan Weisman and Gerald F. Seib in a piece for The Wall Street Journals seem to suggest the buck stops at Obama's door. While the Dem leadership would like to lay blame at the Republican's efforts to effectively undermine efforts at reform, even the most partisan pundits have difficulty bolstering that claim. James Carville is quoted on this point stating:

"President Obama is ratcheting up the stakes too," said James Carville, a veteran of former President Bill Clinton's failed effort to retool health care in 1993-94. "He's certainly not talking them down. And they're pretty big. They win this health-care thing, and they get some decent kind of evidence of [an economic] recovery, they might be in pretty good shape this time next year. But if they lose this, the Republicans understand the stakes too. Nobody is being very coy about it."

Rather than tone the stakes down, Obama is preparing to hold yet another prime time presser this evening. Despite a 10 day full court press, the President appears to be losing ground. Waterloo? It sure looks like it.